Lascassas, Tennessee, April 3, 2005 (Sunday) – We are 150 miles west of home, planning a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Home will be a brief stop on our annual spring auto tour. Currently, the plan is to stop at Lenoir City long enough to pick up some auto parts to take to West Virginia. We have a 1957 Volkswagen up there in the process of being restored and the parts are for that project.
Since we will already be more than halfway to the coast, we plan to drive to Lewisburg, West Virginia, a town that almost qualifies as my ancestorial home, then go to Norfolk and head down the coast for a scenic tour.
At this time of year, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina are in various stages of spring. We will pass through regions of high and low elevations and expect to experience a wide range of temperatures.
It has been almost 40 years since I have seen some parts of the Outer Banks. I drove all the way to Ocracoke Inlet in 1965. Then about 20 years ago I made a shorter trip from Virginia Beach to Nags Head. For Willette, this will be a first trip.
About a year ago, we made a south to north tour of the Natchez Trace Parkway and we hope this will be another great trip.
Lewisburg, West Virginia, April 5, 2005 (Tuesday) – We left home this morning and drove 300 miles to deliver those car parts to the restorer. It still looks like winter here, except for the buttercups that are blooming is yards. We even saw a little snow along the highway.
My grandfather lived near Lewisburg during his retirement years. His house, located at Dawson, is a stately southern style home on a hill. He named it “Weatherhill” and lived there for about 30 years. The name “Weatherhill” is still on a sign near the main gate. I visited there often, beginning in 1942 and continued to do so until he sold out and moved to town about 1972. He was well into his 90’s by then, and lived to be 97. I have fond memories of hiking the pasture and woods on the hill behind the house. The house still looks pretty much the same, but the barn is gone. The general store across the street has been torn down, but another store nearby is still there. It appears to have been closed for a long time. The store was built in 1901 and the old hand-pumped, gravity feed gasoline pump is still there. I remember buying gasoline there for my 1953 Packard Clipper.
At one time, the town of Dawson was isolated deep in the wilds of Greenbriar County, but now I-65 passes just a mile or so away. I don’t think my grandfather would have liked that.
Here in Lewisburg, we located the store front where my parents ran the Lamplighter Cafeteria, but we were unable to find Aunt Jarrett’s house. Lewisburg has changed in the last few decades.
Nags Head, North Carolina April 6, 2005 (Wednesday) – The descent from the mountains of West Virginia to the Piedmont in Virginia, and the coast of North Carolina was nothing short of spectacular. The trees in the mountains looked like winter, but down here on the barrier islands, it is spring going on summer. Bike week begins here tomorrow and already, the song of the Harley Davidson can be heard all along the coast.
The interstates were almost deserted north of Charlottesville and we passed through Norfork with no problems. We arrived at Kitty Hawk just as the Wright Brothers Memorial was closing, so we will visit there tomorrow before driving south.
Since I first visited here in 1965, time and hurricanes have brought about great changes. A lot of sand has been moved around, there are new highways, and those big weathered beach houses have increased at least ten fold. Most are no longer weathered. I guess that look went out of style, or maybe in the process of repairing storm damage, they applied new paint and/or siding. But the wind still tries to drift sand across the roadways and barefoot tourists still dart across traffic on their way to the beach.
It’s a little windy here, but otherwise very pleasant.
Buxton, North Carolina, April 7, 2005 (Thursday) – We are on Hatteras Island, less than a mile from the famous lighthouse. This morning we went to the Wright Brothers Memorial up in Nags Head. It is very impressive and there are lots of new displays since I was here 40 years ago. We climbed the big dune known as Kill Devil Hill, and walked the length of the four flights made on Dec. 17, 1903. the Wrights made glider flights from the hill, but powered flights were made on level ground.
Turning south, we drove down to the elbow of Hatteras Island, stopping to see the Bodie Lighthouse and the lighthouse keeper’s home. We stopped for lunch at Lisa’s Pizzeria. There are no fast food joints on Hatteras or Ocracoke Islands.
After checking into the Lighthouse View motel in Buxton, we visited the Hatteras lighthouse which has been moved about a mile inland, due to beach erosion. The new location looks the same as the old one did years ago.
After driving to the southwest end of Hatteras, we took a 40 minute free ferry ride around the west end of the Hatteras Inlet to Ocracoke. The trip is all on the Pamlico Sound side of the islands, as the inlet is choppy with unpredictable currents. We then drove the length of Ocracoke, a long narrow, completely deserted island. Well, it’s deserted except for the town of Ocracoke at the south end. It reminded us of Rockport. Mass., Key West, Florida, and Avalon, California all rolled into one.
Houses here on the Outer Banks tend to be very tall. Some are three, four, and even five stories tall. Picture a five room house with the rooms stacked. I suppose they build them that way because the lots are small, the view is improved, and storm a surge won’t flood the whole house. There is some evidence of recently repaired hurricane damage.
We checked out the Ocracoke lighthouse and then returned to our motel in Buxton. This involved about an hour of driving and another ferry ride.
Burlington, North Carolina, April 8, 2005 (Friday) – We had two ferry rides today. We took the free ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke again, then drove 14 miles to town at the other end of the island. There, we boarded the big ferry ($15) to Cedar Island. This was a real boat trip. The ferry is over 200 feet long and could easily carry 30 cars, but there were only 12 on this trip. There is a comfortable lounge two decks above the car deck. It provides comfortable seats and a panoramic view. At 12 knots, we took more than two hours to make the trip. We were completely out of sight of land for more than an hour and a flock of birds followed us the whole way.
Cedar Island is a remote area with a few homes and very few businesses, but it has mile after mile of salt water marshes. One area had hundreds of acres of marsh that had recently burned to the waterline.
After crossing a couple of bridges we felt like we had returned to the mainland, so we followed US 70 until it connected with I-40. Several times, we drove though heavy rainstorms, but there were also a few periods of sunshine. Traffic was heavy in the Raleigh-Durham area. It was a big contrast to the light traffic on the Outer Banks where summer traffic jams are still almost two months away.
Lenoir City, Tennessee, April 9, 2005 (Saturday) – We celebrated my baby sister’s birthday by driving home from Burlington, North Carolina. We crossed the Piedmont Plateau and the Smoky Mountains. About 1:30 pm, we stopped for lunch and a couple of shows at Dollywood.
They call it a “flatbread sandwich” at Dollywood, but it looks like a fajita to me. Dollywood is in the middle of their Festival of Nations and we caught the steel band from Trinidad and a Chinese acrobat show. A couple of weeks earlier we saw a Russian circus there and we just had to go back for more. In all these years as season pass holders, we have never seen a bad show or eaten a bad meal at Dollywood. Some of the rides will get you soaking wet, or scare you to death, but the food and shows are always excellent.
The last leg of the journey was through Wears Valley and Maryville. We left Lenoir City with a full tank of gas, drove 1530 miles, filled up twice and got home with half a tank. We got 38 mpg on the first tank and 37 on the second. Not bad for a Toyota Camry. Gas mileage has become very important lately.
Howard
